Echoes

Back in January I wrote about the late Fr Jeremy Winston, Dean of Monmouth, whose tragic death just over a year ago robbed the Church in Wales of one of her brightest stars yet he had been told: "there is no place for you in this church". Today comes news of another tragic story, the loss of what promised to be an outstanding ministry in the episcopate, the withdrawal of Fr Philip North from the post of Bishop of Whitby. The reason? Because of an all consuming desire to see women in purple at any cost. So insidious has this desire become that even the Archbishop of Canterbury, long thought of as a friend of the faithful, appears to have succumbed to this lust for woman power which, sadly, is how they now see the episcopate.

In a November entry I suggested that the Church of England seemed destined to follow the path of the Church in Wales if promises of a secure place in the church for traditionalists were not honoured. They were not; the vote was lost. The latest episode in the shameful treatment of Fr North should act as a salutary warning that lust, like greed and anger is another deadly sin committed in the name of so-called equality and without a great deal of contrition is likely to see another defeat. 

If women insist on being robed in purple they first need to understand the basics of what they have entered into, as do their supporters.